Mexico official says police capture top drug lord 'La Tuta’ Gomez

Associated Press

Published
2:25 pm PST, Friday, February 27, 2015

Federal police patrol as part of increased security outside the organized-crime division of Mexico's Attorney General Office where high profile detainees are sometimes shown to the press in Mexico City.

Federal police patrol as part of increased security outside the organized-crime division of Mexico's Attorney General Office where high profile detainees are sometimes shown to the press in Mexico City.

Photo: Marco Ugarte / Associated Press

Photo: Marco Ugarte / Associated Press

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Federal police patrol as part of increased security outside the organized-crime division of Mexico's Attorney General Office where high profile detainees are sometimes shown to the press in Mexico City.

Federal police patrol as part of increased security outside the organized-crime division of Mexico's Attorney General Office where high profile detainees are sometimes shown to the press in Mexico City.

Photo: Marco Ugarte / Associated Press

Mexico official says police capture top drug lord 'La Tuta’ Gomez

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MEXICO CITY — Servando “La Tuta” Gomez, a former school teacher who became one of Mexico’s most-wanted drug lords as head of the Knights Templar cartel, was captured early Friday by federal police, according to a Mexican official.

Gomez was arrested in Morelia, the capital of the western state of Michoacan, without a shot fired, said the official spokesman, who talked on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

The 49-year-old leader of the Knights Templar, a quasi-religious criminal group that once ruled all of Michoacan, controlling politics and commerce, evaded capture for more than a year after the federal government took control of the state to try to restore order. The Mexican government had offered a $2 million reward for his capture, and he also was wanted in the United States for conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine.

It was not immediately clear who, if anyone, has taken over the cartel in Michoacan, where deadly conflicts continue between former “self-defense” groups and clashes with federal police.

The arrest is a badly needed win for the Mexican government. President Enrique Peña Nieto has faced a political crisis since 43 college students disappeared last fall at the hands of local authorities, and conflict-of-interest scandals emerged involving the sales of luxury homes to his wife and the country’s treasury secretary from a government contractor.

Gomez is the latest in a string of top drug lords to be arrested since Peña Nieto took office in December 2012, including last year’s detention of the biggest capo, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

“It’s a very significant capture and (Gomez) is a very important player,” said Eric L. Olson, an analyst specializing in Mexican security and organized crime at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

“The bottom line is these captures are important, but one has to keep them in perspective,” he added. “They can unleash a lot more conflict and violence — although it’s kind of hard to imagine in the case of Michoacan things getting any worse.”

Folksy and charismatic with puffy cheeks and a large nose, Gomez rose from schoolteacher to one of Mexico’s most ruthless and wanted cartel leaders, dominating the lucrative methamphetamine trade for a time and controlling his home state through extortion, intimidation and coercion of business and political leaders.

Outspoken and particularly crafty, Gomez often appeared in videos wearing his signature baseball cap and salt-and-pepper goatee that were leaked during his time on the run.

The recordings showed him meeting with elected officials, journalists and other influential people, including the son of former Michoacan Gov. Fausto Vallejo, a member of Peña Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party. Vallejo resigned last year for health reasons.